BIG Brown, with a secu rity phalanx bigger than the president’s, flew through his final Belmont Stakes workout yesterday, going faster than any other horse on the grounds and setting off sparkles, smiles – and relief – among his handlers.

Minutes later, his trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr., made the case in plain, simple terms why the celebrity colt will win the classic on Saturday and engrave his name in the history books as the 12th Triple Crown winner.

He also told how he sacked his jockey Kent Desormeaux off the horse in the mornings – and has banned him ever since.

Say this about the babe: When he speaks his mind, he sets off a buzz.

What got him going yesterday was Big Brown’s feisty, five-furlong breeze in a minute flat – the fastest work of the morning at the distance – and the fluid ease with which he did it. Best of all, the big machine pulled up without so much as an itch in his vaunted quarter crack hoof.

“We’re very happy with him, we’re in good shape,” said Dutrow, and you could almost feel the anxiety flood out of him. “We jumped a big hurdle today.”

Indeed they did. Big Brown worked without a patch on his problem left front hoof, a test of the healing process, and when he cooled out, his hoof was like a golden dollar – not a scratch, not a speck of blood to be seen.

The horse was eager to roll. He had not gone against the stopwatch since a couple of days before the Kentucky Derby, five weeks ago. So when his exercise rider, Michelle Nevin, set him loose at the five-furlong pole, Big Brown took off like an express.

“He was very aggressive,” said Michelle. “He wanted to do something. He was trying to get away from me early, so I had to take a pretty good hold of him all the way. Even so, he went the first three-eighths in 35 seconds.

“He was very comfortable handling the track. He has such a huge stride. The Belmont’s mile and a half won’t bother him.”

Dutrow was beaming. He said, “He’s right on target. We’re all set. He couldn’t be any better. I am as confident as I have ever been.”

That prompted the question: Why does Dutrow brag so much?

“I say Big Brown will win the Belmont because he is, by far, the best horse in the race,” the trainer said. “It’s as simple as that.

“I have seen him run, I have seen the other horses run. None of them makes me anxious. It’s simple. His post position does not matter, it will not get him beat. The pace will not be an issue. If they don’t go to the front, he will. If they do go, he’ll sit.

“We have the best horse and he’s going the right way.”

Dutrow said Big Brown only ran a sixteenth of a mile in the Preakness. “From the gate to the quarter pole, the horse was just galloping. From the eighth pole to the wire, he was just galloping. We’ve got plenty left for the Belmont.”

Asked why Desormeaux did not breeze Big Brown in the morning, Dutrow said, “I let him breeze the horse once or twice, but I’d never let him do it again. It’s the only time I’ve never seen the horse any good on the track.”

Dutrow said that when Nevin went to Dubai, he thought it would be a good move to get Desormeaux to breeze Big Brown at Palm Meadows, in Florida, in the winter.

“I quickly learned it wasn’t,” Dutrow said. “The horse was getting out in the middle of the track. It looked terrible. I asked Kent what the hell was going on, and he assured me the horse was great.

“But I knew something wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. It’s the only time I ever watched Big Brown breeze, and I couldn’t stand it. It was a mess.”